As we now know, the Minnesota Timberwolves were always thinking about the possibility of moving Karl-Anthony Towns' massive contract. Many thought he would be close to untouchable in trade talks, but Tim Connelly and the Timberwolves' front office ultimately decided that keeping him and his contract around would be more detrimental than the challenge of having to figure out life without him.
Obviously, this line of thought led to KAT being dealt to New York back in September. Minnesota's return for their former star included Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick. Making those new pieces work has been and continues to be a challenge, but shouldering the load of Towns' massive new contract was going to be an even more difficult circumstance in the Wolves' pursuit of building a championship roster.
Now, new details have come out regarding what the Timberwolves' front office was doing in recent months leading up to them ultimately dealing Towns to the Knicks. Minnesota had explored offers from multiple teams, and one franchise that they considered doing business with was the New Orleans Pelicans.
According to an article from league insider Shams Charania, the Timberwolves showed "a level of interest" in making a trade with the Pelicans for Brandon Ingram. However, no deal got done due to time constraints.
A trade would have to have been completed during the 2023-24 season
Charania writes: The Pelicans discussed trades with multiple teams over the summer, but no concrete offer made sense. A level of interest came from the Minnesota Timberwolves, sources told ESPN, and they would have needed to put together a trade concept around Karl-Anthony Towns for Ingram. The window to get a deal done for both teams, however, needed to come during the 2023-24 season, not the offseason, because Towns still would have been under his old contract.
So essentially, Minnesota could have ended up with Ingram as their centerpiece in a trade for Karl-Anthony Towns. While Ingram is talented, it feels safe to say they made the right choice in getting both Randle as well as DiVincenzo instead.
From what Shams is telling us, it sounds as though the timing is the only thing that really prevented this potential trade from happening. The Pelicans likely wanted to acquire Towns during the season so they would have a time period where they could evaluate his fit with the rest of their roster. Had they determined he would not be a long-term fit, New Orleans would have had ample time to worry about dealing him elsewhere in order to get a significant return.
But after that time window passed, it of course no longer made sense for the Pelicans to take on the max contract of a guy they were not even 100% sold on at the time. Overall, I would say the Timberwolves made the right move in taking New York's offer over New Orleans'. Because regardless of what other assets the Pelicans included, Randle was always going to have more potential resale value than Ingram.